Conservative/Liberal Restaurants in Cedar City

I live in Cedar City, Utah. While this is a college town, it’s what liberals would call arch-conservative. Heck … we’re a 4 hour drive away from Salt Lake, which passes for liberal in these parts.*

Last weekend, The Wall Street Journal published an article discussing how suburbs are getting more urban in temperament, and how that shows in the sort of retail establishments they have. And on their Washington Wire blog they included data from Experian about this.

This raises an interesting question about my small city on the interstate. We don’t have enough local population to support the whole spectrum of establishments ranked in the article. Instead, we have a handful. So did corporate offices and franchisers choose these based on politics?

The tables in the source are sortable, and come with a certain sort specified. By all means, go and play with them. Here, higher values for “C. Index” and “L. Index” indicate places that are favored by conservatives or liberals. Higher/lower values in both categories indicates places that independents avoid/frequent.

Anyway, here’s the chain restaurants. I’ve highlighted the ones we have locally. Obviously, we don’t have many … but yes indeed … we are heavily weighted towards the restaurants that liberals are less likely to frequent.

Chain Restaurants

Sorted by Liberalness

Restaurant

C. Index

L. Index

CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN

75

146

ROMANO'S MACARONI GRILL

96

141

RUTH'S CHRIS STEAK HOUSE

93

137

ON THE BORDER

94

136

P.F. CHANG'S CHINA BISTRO

80

133

BERTUCCI'S

87

132

THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY

87

132

FRIENDLY'S

69

132

MARIE CALLENDER'S

104

123

CHEVY'S

93

123

HOOTERS

105

121

BUFFALO WILD WINGS …

86

118

PONDEROSA …

97

112

OLD COUNTRY BUFFET

81

111

CARRABBA'S ITALIAN …

110

110

FUDDRUCKER'S

84

110

JOE'S CRAB SHACK

84

110

RUBY TUESDAY

93

109

O'CHARLEY'S

121

108

PERKINS

95

108

RED ROBIN

105

106

IHOP

94

106

MIMI'S CAFE

103

105

SHONEY'S

110

104

TGI FRIDAY'S

92

104

LONE STAR …

104

102

OLIVE GARDEN

101

102

CHUCK E. CHEESE'S

89

101

PAPA MURPHY'S

116

98

RED LOBSTER

101

97

APPLEBEE'S

100

97

OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE

100

97

DENNY'S

99

96

BIG BOY

98

96

CHILI'S GRILL & BAR

99

94

BLACK ANGUS STEAKHOUSE

101

93

HOMETOWN BUFFET

116

88

GOLDEN CORRAL

101

86

SIZZLER

103

85

LONGHORN STEAKHOUSE

115

82

CRACKER BARREL

118

75

BOB EVANS

110

71

And here’s a little local trivia: the Shoney’s here closed about 11 years ago, and was replaced by a politically similar IHOP which has never thrived.

Being along I-15, and a college town, it’s no surprise that we have many more fast food places.

Fast Food Establishments

Sorted by Conservativeness

Fast Food Establishment

C. Index

L. Index

KRYSTAL

118

87

SCHLOTZSKY'S DELI

114

95

WHATABURGER

114

87

CAPTAIN D'S

113

101

STEAK'N SHAKE

113

98

CHICK-FIL-A

113

81

ZAXBY'S

110

102

BOJANGLES'

109

102

DAIRY QUEEN

109

86

CHURCH'S FRIED CHICKEN

107

97

FAZOLI'S ITALIAN

107

93

LONG JOHN SILVER'S

104

74

PAPA JOHN'S

103

97

DONATOS PIZZA

103

95

ARBY'S

103

92

SONIC

103

88

CHECKERS

102

108

HARDEE'S

102

78

KRISPY KREME

101

102

PIZZA HUT

101

83

PIZZA INN

100

108

DOMINO'S PIZZA

100

101

LITTLE CAESAR'S

100

95

MCDONALD'S

100

95

WENDY'S

100

93

COLD STONE CREAMERY

99

134

BOSTON MARKET

98

135

KFC

98

97

BURGER KING

98

95

PANDA EXPRESS

97

120

SUBWAY

97

100

RALLY'S

97

82

BASKIN & ROBBINS

96

113

POPEYES

95

111

CARL'S JR.

95

110

WHITE CASTLE

95

109

CICI'S PIZZA

95

105

PANERA BREAD

94

126

OTHER FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS

94

108

TACO BELL

94

99

GODFATHER'S PIZZA

94

75

EINSTEIN BROS. BAGELS

93

126

DEL TACO

93

109

MAZZIO'S

93

98

JACK-IN-THE-BOX

93

95

WING STOP

92

90

QUIZNOS SUB

90

117

STARBUCKS

89

136

DUNKIN' DONUTS

89

113

A & W

89

104

EL POLLO LOCO

87

94

BLIMPIE

86

136

ROUND TABLE PIZZA

85

126

WIENERSCHNITZEL

85

83

SBARRO

83

126

QDOBA

82

147

TACO TIME

81

98

CHIPOTLE

75

160

AU BON PAIN

74

182

JAMBA JUICE

72

130

The evidence is much more mixed here. But quite a few of the highlighted places towards the bottom of the list of conservativeness are not liberal strongholds either: like Godfather’s, Burger King, or KFC, and even Subway and Taco Bell.

* FWIW: There’s been a big local controversy ever since the state of Utah designated my school, Southern Utah University, as the state’s designated liberal arts school. It’s so conservative around here that just the word “liberal” in liberal arts ticks people off.

Genesis

Information

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